Page 109 of Gift from the Source
“Well done. Codi, your Nexus will stay for report. Everyone else can return to your houses,” I say.
“Hear me out for a second, but maybe…say a little more than that,”Willow says with humor coloring her tone.
I know what it is she’s subtly telling me to do, and I grunt. Not at all wanting to do what she’s asking. But if I don’t, she will. Then she’ll have my men eating out of her hands like puppies.
“The last few weeks have been nonstop. These missions may have seemed small scale, but they were far from that. Ten Mastery locations located, infiltrated, and destroyed is no small feat whatsoever. We didn’t lose a single man but cut down plenty of theirs. You should be proud of yourselves. I’m…very impressed. The Spring Ball is a few days away. Relax, spend time with your Nexuses. No more missions until that’s over.”
My men erupt into cheers. I grit my teeth and cut my eyes down to Willow, only for the soft smile on her lips and knowing look to simmer my irritation down immediately.
Well, almost.
“Dismissed,” I bark and then smirk as they scatter.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” she asks sweetly as she turns into me and wraps her arms around me.
“I don’t know about that,” I grunt.
“You start treating them like babies, they’re going to act like it,” Trex comments as he, Codi, Dex, and Xander walk up to us.
“See, little warrior. The asshole agrees with me.”
He chuffs as everyone laughs at his expense.
I give him shit daily about his dickish attitude, but honestly, Trex is a natural-born leader. Which is something I wouldn’t have ever assumed based on the first time I met him.
I’m still not sure if his purpose is still fully fueled by revenge or not, but regardless, when I made the tough decision to let Codi lead these missions up since it was his brother’s knowledge we needed the most, Trex stepped up with him and has been impressive, to say the least.
When my Nexus and Ry’s started discussing who would lead these missions since the two of us needed to stay here, I couldn’t decide on anyone. My trust in anyone who isn’t considered family was gone.
Finding out about Claven was a knife to the gut that sank in deep, then sliced me all the way to my heart.
I was questioning everyone’s motives around me. I was prying so deeply into the minds of my men, I’m surprised I didn’t accidentally melt a couple brains.
Claven’s betrayal was a different sort of betrayal.
I disliked him, of course, but I didn’t have a hate for him that he has for me. I tried to convince myself all those years that he was simply bitter at losing our trials. The thought of him being a rebel that entire time never crossed my mind.
He would join us in meetings, talk shit about the rebels, he’d help us plan missions against them. Even in his hatred for me, I never saw him as a traitor. Me sucking up his disdain and convincing Corentin the right move was to hire him to settle the uproar in the elite society was so foolish on my part.
It was all a lie.
And he will pay greatly for it when I find him.
I had to put all that aside, though, and make the best call for these missions. And funny enough, putting three men who were previously Mastery slaves in charge became the perfect choice.
As for Codi, he hasn’t always manned Rebel Castle. He used to be in the front lines all the time when he first joined the E.F. The only reason I had placed him at the castle was because he was Nexusless and the team I had joined him with were wiped out on a nasty mission that went wrong.
He was the sole survivor, and it crushed him. Those were his substitute brothers, and they were gone.
Being reunited with his real brothers, that pain has been healed. It’ll always linger because he was so close to those men for years, but now he has even more reason to avenge them.
“Yeah, yeah. Call me an asshole all you want, but when I’m being an asshole, not making friends, I can pick out shit no one else notices because they’re all goofing off,” Trex grumbles.
“What are you talking about?” I ask.
“They were cocky this mission. Yes, we were successful, but while they were too busy celebrating our victory, they didn’t even realize we pulled in a high-ranking member.”
“Why didn’t you lead with that?”
